The Devil Squeeks

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Dad Update

First off, thank you for your prayers and kind words. I'm fresh, dressed and feeling like a million bucks. My time away was worth it. I have that urge sometimes...to just break the out. I'll call to let you know I'm good but I just need some space to myself. No computer, no phone, an I'll call you don't call me kind of thing. I've been doing that since I was about 17. Is it a pisces thing? I invited my sister and some friends up to the timeshare when I went back (you can only knock around alone for so long) and we had a good time.

My dad was supposed to arrive this weekend. His frat brother, Ernie, made the 10 hour drive to Louisville to pick him up. When he pulled up to my mom's house in his rented truck my dad wasn't in the truck. He started unloading boxes full of clothes. Clothes from 20 years ago. Long story short...my dad decided he wants to drive himself and decided to send a bunch of shit with Ernie. Ernie said that the more my dad packed into the truck the more he wanted to pack but he never made the move to bring himself.

Keep in mind this is the second person in the last five weeks to go to Louisville to bring my dad back here. The first was my mom's cousin, my dad's best friend. He flew in, bought my dad a ticket, my dad was supposed to get a ride to the airport and never showed.

Fast forward back to Ernie pulling overflowing boxes and boxes and boxes of clothes and appliance and shit out of the truck. My mom stops him and tells him she has a thing with mice and roaches and she really doesn't want those things in her garage. She's willing to put my dad up, not his things but she'll pay for a storage unit. Er.nie turns into a bitch and starts sucking his teeth and throwing the boxes back into the truck. He then gets in his truck and calls some friend of my dad's and tells him what my mom did. In her face. Looking back it was funny but at the time I really wanted to slap the shit out of him.

Now my mom is starting to second guess herself. My dad is making this so difficult. She feels like she's put herself out there to help as much as she can but he wants to manipulate it so it goes his way...the stroke hasn't affected his ability to do that. His cognitive issues are apparent to everyone but him. Having cognitive issues myself from my glory holes I've tried to offer suggestions and talk to him about it but he just cops an attitude. I've talked to my doctor about me flying out there but he thinks the stress of the situation wouldn't be good for me and cause an exacerbation. And when it comes down to it what can I do? I can't make him leave. I've been told I may have to force the issue and have him declared mentally incompetent. Being the oldest sucks sometimes. I'm not ready for this.